O’Neill de­nial

The eva­sive de­nial of Peter O’Neill to re­spond to the wishes of PNG stu­dents to put him through cor­rup­tion charges seems to be frus­trat­ing the wishes of the ma­jor­ity (FS 29/4/16; PACNEWS) The in­ves­tiga­tive pow­ers and in­de­pen­dence of the cor­rup­tion unit is of great im­por­tance and no one should be above the law through spe­cial treat­ment when others have been ar­rested and charged al­ready. He should be able to ex­plain and de­fend him­self against the al­le­ga­tion(s). He paints a pic­ture of de­spite­ful­ness and is un­con­cerned about the grievances of his peo­ple and the need to stand up to jus­tice. He should not re­main un­de­terred amidst calls to follow the law. It cer­tainly looks dic­ta­to­rial to me if he is not treat­ing the al­le­ga­tion with ur­gency. The au­thor­ity and in­de­pen­dence of the ju­di­ciary should not crum­ble un­der the in­flu­ence of more pow­er­ful elites in the sys­tem, who sup­port un­demo­cratic ori­en­ta­tions.